OPINION

It's SARS not Malema that needs investigating - Zuma

And nine other of the top articles from the weekend press

10. The Financial Mail feature article on Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi's efforts to turn around South Africa's ailing public health care system:

Motsoaledi told the FM's Carol Paton that: "We are going to review management competency. We are aware that some hospitals have serious management problems and there we won't take chances in delegating authority. But if a CEO of a hospital can't fix a broken window because he doesn't have the authority, then what is he there for?" Paton also reports that "Motsoaledi is committed to seeing the NHI implemented within the next five years: ‘It is a resolution of the ruling party.' But it won't be based on an ANC position paper on it last year. ‘The cabinet committee [that discussed the ANC document] found that there were many things that had to be redone, like the costing and the element of primary health care. It was a signal that neither they [nor NHI adviser Aquina Thulare] will have the final word'."

9. The Saturday Beeld report on the suspension of the police's controversial legal chief Divisional Commissioner Lindiwe Mthimkulu on charges of fraud:

Hilda Fourie notes that in the midst of the fuss around her suspension Mthimkulu made time to attend the appearance in the Pretoria Magistrates court of her son, Nkosinathi Melvin Nkuleleko Mthimkulu, who is facing charges of housebreaking. Mthimkulu Jr. was arrested in May 2009 have he and four accomplices were caught breaking into a house in Moreleta Park in the east of Pretoria. He was detained following a gun fight with police and a chase through the city.

8. The Sunday Times report on how the rotten municipality of Madibeng had allowed Hartbeespoort dam to be turned into an open sewer:

Prega Govender and Kea' Modimoeng write that "millions of litres of raw sewage flowed into the dam between November last year and January after pumps at the water treatment plants stopped working. This prompted the municipality to warn residents to boil water before drinking it because of possible health hazards. The problem is not confined to wealthy suburbs....Eighty-nine people were arrested as Oukasie residents blocked roads, burnt tyres and threw stones at police last week in protest over the poor water quality and lack of service delivery."

7. S' Thembiso Msomi's feature in the Sunday Times on outgoing director-general of home affairs, Mavuso Msimang:

Msimang tells Msomi of only partially successful to battle graft with the department. He notes, "there are serious syndicates who pay good money for South African documents. Depending on the country of origin, they can go as high as R75,000 for a South African passport." The point of weakness in the system is, he added, the ability of individuals to apply late to register birth certificates. Msimang also talked of how power had corrupted many in the ANC. "In exile, ANC activists used to experience a lot of corruption in some of the countries in which they lived, he says. ‘We used to vow that it would never happen in South Africa but that changed when we came back'."

6. The Sunday Independent report [$] on the attempted murder of James Nkambule in Mpumalanga:

Nkambule, a former ANCYL secretary general in the province, was the source of ‘the plot' claims against Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa back in 2001. He is now with COPE. He told Sydney Masinga of The African Eye News Service that he had been attacked by three men on Wednesday evening. "I think this is the work of a high profile ANC leader and three provincial businessman who killed Jimmy Mohlala last year. They know that their hitman has made a confession to me, so they want to silence me... The hitman confessed how he poisoned me in 2006 and how much his gang was paid to kill Mohlala. I don't understand why they want to kill me now because Josh's statement is already with the police. They have already killed me with their poison because it has activated my [colon] cancer."

5. Nico Geldenhuys' interview with Eugene de Kock in Rapport newspaper:

Geldenhuys asks De Kock whether he would envision problems adapting to the ‘new South Africa' if he was released from prison. De Kock replies: "Not at all. I was one of the few policemen - perhaps the only one - who was not a racist." "In Namibië het ek op plekke geloop waar daar omtrent nog nooit 'n wit mens was nie. Dan is ek die enigste wit ou tussen 60 of 80 swart soldate wat nog nie behoorlik opgelei is nie. Daai ou het my nie gevolg omdat hy vir my bang was of omdat ek hom gedreig het nie. Hy het my gevolg omdat hy geweet het ek sal hom nooit alleen los of aan sy eie lot oorlaat nie." De Kock also told Geldenhuys that when he was arrested seventeen years ago "Ek het geweet ek gaan lank sit. Maar ek het nie verwag ek gaan alleen sit nie."

4. The City Press report on how ANCYL President Julius Malema's company, SGL Engineering Projects, was awarded an additional R6m worth of tenders by Polokwane municipality in October 2009:

Chandre Prince writes that the information comes from a document compiled by the municipality in response to a question from COPE in the Limpopo legislature. "The answers from Polokwane, were, however, inexplicably omitted from the official response [tabled] by the provincial local government and housing department. A senior municipal official said this was because the answers highlighted the extent to which Malema's company dominated tenders in the province."

3. Moshoeshoe Monare's interview with President Jacob Zuma in the Sunday Independent:

Monare reported that Zuma did not believe any action was warranted against Julius Malema for his business dealings in Limpopo as, apparently, the ANCYL president had "explained himself to him." It was up to Malema's detractors to produce evidence that he had broken the law. However, Zuma told Monare that Malema's claims that SARS had looked into the financial dealings of prominent Zuma supporters in 2007 did warrant an investigation: "I am concerned about the matter" Zuma said, "... because (it) is spoken (about) in public... We need to know what has been happening. I'm sure at the right time, the... information (will come) to us... But I must also say that [Malema] has mentioned that in a formal meeting (of the ANC), it's not that he has mentioned that only in public... That is why it has become a concern... We've got to follow it up, we can't just leave it unattended."

2. The City Press lead story - headed TAX DODGER - reporting that Malema had "never filed tax forms and his companies have no tax clearance certificates":

Dumisane Lubisi and Piet Rampedi report that according to a whistleblower who contacted ID leader Patricia de Lille "Malema's companies were not tax-compliant... and that no tax clearance certificates (TCCs) had been issued to his companies. To qualify for tender considerations a company must have a TCC."

1. The Sunday Independent lead story on how President Zuma had failed to "declare his private interests, assets and liabilities as required by law":

Gaye Davis writes that "the executive members' ethics code says every cabinet member must disclose full particulars - including those of their spouse, any permanent companion and dependent children- within 60 days of taking office. Zuma will have been in office for a year on May 9..." The newspaper quoted Zuma's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said presidency staff had decided that he probably need not declare them as there was a "lack of clarity" in the law as to whether he was actually required to.

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